Isolation and identification of the conjunctival fungal flora in healthy Holstein cattle in Urmia district

Fungi are considered as normal inhabitants of the ocular surface of healthy animals, however under certain conditions such as eye trauma could cause disease. This study was conducted with the purpose of identifying  the fungal isolates of healthy eyes from Holstein cattle in Urmia district . Conjunctival swabs were taken from both eyes of 40 healthy Iranian Holstein cattle and cultured onto Sabouraud dextrose agar and malt extract agar. Plates were incubated at 25°C for 14 days. Effect of host age and sex on prevalence of isolates were analyzed by mann whitney and fisher’s exact tests using SAS software. Overall, 34 filamentous fungi were isolated from 24 (60%) cattle and 27 (33.75%) eyes. The isolated fungal genera in order of frequency were Aspergillus (44.12%), Curvularia (20.59%), Penicillium (14.7%), Pseudallescheria (14.7%), Fusarium (2.97%) and Scopulariopsis (2.97%). Isolation rate of fungi in older cattle (p=0.04) and male cattle (p=0.032) was significantly higher. This is the first report of ocular fungal flora in Iranian Holstein cattle.